Cameron: “Avatar 2” Will Take Place In Pandora's Ocean

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Thankfully for James Cameron, “Avatar” didn’t have to end with most of the characters dying in a boat crash. That leaves him free to do a second movie in the world of Pandora and begin printing his own hard currency. And, in this interview with the LA Times, Cameron explains just what that sequel will entail. It’ll be just like the first movie, only set in the fictional planet’s ocean. That exploding sound you just heard was Cameron’s effects people all having simultaneous aneurysms.

I’ve already announced this, so I might as well say it: Part of my focus in the second film is in creating a different environment – a different setting within Pandora. And I’m going to be focusing on the ocean on Pandora, which will be equally rich and diverse and crazy and imaginative, but it just won’t be a rain forest. I’m not saying we won’t see what we’ve already seen; we’ll see more of that as well.

Ask most movie people about setting a movie in water or on it, and all of them will begin spontaneously cursing and breaking dishes. “Avatar 2” won’t require any actual filming on water, of course. That’ll all be created in post. But creating the effect of water is also a brutal business. The lighting is more nuanced and the BUBBLES! My God, there are bubbles everywhere.

When Cameron first brought the idea of “Avatar” to his effects people, they said to him (according to Cameron): “We can’t do this. We’ll die.” Well, Cameron is nothing if not pushy, and so now he’s built an even higher mountain to climb: taking the biggest film of all time, setting it in water, and doing it in half the time for half the price.

You don’t get to be King of the World by being reasonable. Expect to get your money’s worth on this one.